BAGHDAD: US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down 56 cents, or 1.1 per cent, at US$49.96. “We’re still very well supplied with crude oil”. But the rebound was limited by doubts about whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which meets November 30 in Vienna, will succeed in its planned production cut. A preliminary report on Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, had suggested a build of 4.8 million barrels for the October 21 week. WTI futures CLc1 were at $49.33 per barrel, up 15 cents, or 0.31 percent, from their previous settlement.
Crude traded near a three-week low as a government report showed an unexpected decline in USA crude supply was centered on the West Coast. “A large jump in inventories will no doubt see crude pushed lower again”, Halley said.Further stoking supply, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has resumed crude exports from the Forcados terminal in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta following repairs after a militant attack, the Nigerian presidency said late on Tuesday. After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that USA oil inventories increased by 4.8 million barrels in the week ended October 21, higher than the 2.0-million-barrel build forecast by analysts.
Oil prices pared losses after the EIA data, with US crude briefly trading in positive territory. Already, Iran, Libya and Nigeria appear unlikely to commit to production cuts, leaving investors to wonder whether Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are willing to shoulder most of the output freeze. Since the decision at a meeting in Algiers on September 28, at which OPEC said it would seek to cut output to output to a range of 32.5-33.0 million barrels per day, from its current estimate of 33.24 million bpd. Oil prices nudged down in late European trade on Tuesday, retreating from positive territory as traders digested a flurry of comments from OPEC states about the prospects of an output cut and ahead of US crude inventory data.
Before this week, oil prices had risen almost 13 percent in three previous weeks since OPEC announced its first planned output cut in eight years to shore up crude prices that have more than halved from 2014 highs above $100 a barrel. Iraq has said it would not participate, while Indonesia’s state oil firm is targeting an output increase.
